Question:

How to practice dinking in pickleball?

Scores:

openai: 8.5 gemini: 8 anthropic: 9 grok: 10

Answer:

openai / gpt-4o-mini
Score: 8.5
To practice dinking in pickleball, focus on improving your soft touch and control. Start by finding a practice partner or use a wall to rally. Stand near the non-volley zone line (kitchen) and aim to hit the ball gently over the net, ensuring it lands in the opponent's kitchen area. Work on maintaining a low-to-the-ground paddle angle to create effective dinks. Incorporate drills like targeting specific spots on the court while dinking to enhance accuracy. Vary your shots by changing your angles and spin to keep your partner guessing. Additionally, practice footwork to position yourself optimally for dinking. Regular practice sessions will help develop timing and improve your consistency in dinking, making it a valuable aspect of your game.

Graders:

gemini / gemini-2.5-flash
Score: 8
The answer provides solid advice for practicing dinking. However, practicing dinking against a wall is generally not effective as it doesn't simulate the net height or the need to drop the ball into the opponent's kitchen. Partner drills are crucial. Additionally, the phrase 'low-to-the-ground paddle angle' is imprecise. It's more accurate to emphasize maintaining an open paddle face (angled upwards) to lift the ball over the net, and getting the paddle head low to the ground to get underneath the ball for proper contact.
anthropic / claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
Score: 9
The answer is factually accurate and comprehensive. All the advice given is correct: practicing near the kitchen line, using soft touch and control, maintaining a low paddle angle, targeting specific spots, varying angles and spin, and working on footwork are all legitimate and effective dinking practice methods. The suggestion to use a wall or practice partner is practical. The information about ensuring the ball lands in the opponent's kitchen is accurate. The answer covers the key technical, tactical, and training aspects of dinking practice. No significant errors or misleading information detected. The only minor limitation is it could have mentioned the ideal height for dinks (just clearing the net) or the importance of patience in dinking rallies, but these omissions are minor and don't constitute errors.
xai / grok-4-fast-reasoning
Score: 10
The answer is factually accurate, complete, and highly relevant to practicing dinking in pickleball. It covers key techniques like soft touch, positioning, drills, variation, and footwork without any errors or misleading information.
Scores are 0–10. The selected AI’s score is a self-rating.